Keeping Things Together: How to Organize Your Folders

Keeping Things Together: How to Organize Your Folders

Do you ever find yourself running into the problem of knowing you saved a file, but can’t remember where you saved the file?

I have run into this problem way too many times to keep count of and I also know that time is a precious commodity that can’t be wasted looking for that long lost file.

So, in an attempt to help keep folders for your publication readily available here are a few tips that you can follow.

1. Put everything in one folder

One of the easiest ways to keep things organized is to separate each project by its own folder. The more specific, the better. For example, in the image above I have a folder labeled The Paladin Press. That happens to be the name of my publication. Naming the folder this lets me know exactly what is inside the folder.

I typically save any current project I’m working on onto my desktop so that I can get access to it quickly. Once I am done I will then move it to an archive of files that I save in case I ever need to revisit the project.

Inside the folder I also separate all my images and articles into two separate folders like so:

Again this helps keeps everything I need in one place so I don’t have to go looking around for it.

I know, it seems like it would be better to just leave everything in the first file, but I have found that keeping the images and articles separate actually makes it easier to sift through when I’m looking for a specific file.

2. Use a standard naming system

What I mean by this is have a way you name your files that is easy to remember and consistent.

For instance, in our TechKnow lesson on our website (click here), we suggest naming the files by page number, school initials, and the current issue.

So, for example, my Paladin Press issue listed above should be saved as 1-4khsNOV15.PDF by the time I’m done.

Now, this may not work as well for you, so find a system that works. However, I do still recommend you list page numbers on the files you save that get submitted to us. It will help ensure that everything is put in the right place.

3. Have a consistent place that all relevant files can go

This sounds a lot like keeping everything in one folder, but I separated because this tip is a little broader. I understand that as a student built publication, there will be multiple computers being used to create each page individually. However, at the end of the day it’s hard to keep track of who did what and where, so to have a centralized place where your students can save all their work will help prevent headaches when you are getting ready to submit your publication for print.

If you have some type of server that everyone has access to, that would be the ideal place to keep all these folders.

But, not everyone has a file server they can access. For those, I recommend looking into a software like Dropbox. It is a free software that would provide everyone access who knows the login information. In fact, you don’t even have to download it, you can access the files via their website.

If you want more details on the setup, please feel free to click the link provided to our TechKnow Lesson above, or take a look at our video guide on youtube: Organizing Your Folders